Stamp of approval for gaming star

If you have children, you will know about Minecraft. If you have children and know about Minecraft, the chances are you will have heard of Stampy Cat too.

Stampy Cat is a YouTube star (real name Joseph Garrett) with over six and a half million followers worldwide. Kids love him and the videos he makes and will happily sit in front of a computer screen and watch him for hours. He got famous making Minecraft videos, where you can follow the exploits of Stampy Cat and his friends. Most of them have their own YouTube channels too you know.

Anyway, back to Stampy and some important news for the youngsters among you. He is going to be on the BBC today (December 3 2015). The RSE’s (Royal Society of Edinburgh) Christmas lecture broadcast by BBC Scotland, will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer. Stampy is giving the one off lecture to 2000 Tayside schoolchildren, where he will talk about his career, how he makes the videos and will be making one in front of the kids too.

Now to put things into perspective, I mentioned that Stampy has over six and a half million subscribers to his YouTube channel. Compare that to a prime time TV show like East Enders, which regularly gets between seven and seven and a half million viewers and you start to see how big services like YouTube have become.

Is it really surprising though, when the gaming industry is larger than the film industry, that the two should start to blend together? We have seen films based on games, rather than the other way around and there is even a dedicated YouTube service just for gamers at https://gaming.youtube.com/ where players can upload games they are playing for their avid followers to watch.

In case you are worried about your kids spending too much time in front of a computer (it used to be TVs right?), then think about this. The success of people like Joseph Garrett and his Stampy Cat channel can give kids something to aspire to and demonstrates that anyone can become a star. All it takes is a little imaginating, dedication and above all practice and you too could become the next big thing.